Northampton’s Mat Day with his band had a brilliant debut as headliners at the very welcoming blues & jazz venue The Bear Club in Luton.
Mat is getting recognition in the blues world for his excellence as lead guitarist for award-nominated singer-songwriter and producer Greg Coulson. Mat has also toured both in the UK & Europe with award winning harmonica sensation Will Wilde and power house award winning vocalist Alice Armstrong.
Drawing inspiration from legendary musicians like Robben Ford, Matt Schofield, Marcus King, and jazz icons Miles Davis and John Coltrane, Mat infuses his music with a rich blend of blues, jazz, and rock influences with his very powerful and evocative vocals supporting his guitar work. His vocal influences include Paul Rogers, Greg Allman & Jack Bruce.
Mat has created a great tight band with the line-up of Mat Day (guitar & vocals), Luke Palmer (bass), Sam Round (drums) & Ben Maxwell (keys) with his original songs being about his own personal experiences.
A sold-out packed audience were given a great night of blues songs which kicked off with an instrumental bluesy version of The Beatles song ‘Eleanor’ before ‘No One Else To Blame’ from his new EP. This had a solid blues rhythm; great guitar breaks with Mat’s husky vocals and great keys backing from Ben.
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This was followed by ‘Breaking in Two’ which starts with a slower tempo on a slower funky song with passionate vocals, upbeat drums & bass with great keys layer. The tempo increases with great guitar solo & vocals. Then we had ‘Throne of Glass’ which was inspired by reading the book of the same title by American fantasy author Sarah J. Maas, with its great laid back funky tune with lovely powerful vocals, more great solo riffs showing Mat’s mastery of the blues guitar.
A slower ballad by BB King ‘Darling You Know I Love You’ allowed Mat to show his vocal range with passionate but emotive vocals with the next song ‘Travelling Man’ by Albert King taking the audience to the Deep South of the USA with a uptempo funky beat, offbeat vocals and great blues breaks, great keyboard solo from Ben, backed by the band.
The first set with ‘Cause We Ended as Lovers’ which is a Stevie Wonder song, but also covered by Jeff Beck. It has a very mellow sound with song drums and echoey guitar to start. Mat gets carried away emotionally in lovely blues guitar with a great bass break from Luke supported by drums and keys.
The second set kicked off with the song ‘Cut You Loose’, with a version by Robben Ford, with its keyboard break and guitar interplay, with solid drums & bass guitar break from Mat, before a great drum solo from Sam. Next was a new song ‘Nothing Else’ with its slower tempo and great blues guitar riffs with great passionate vocals from Mat and great rhythm section and keys.
Next up was a Little Feat song ‘On Your Way Down’ with its plaintive vocals, jazz and blues influences which increases tempo with great guitar, drum, bass & keys interplay.
Then a very personal song ‘Love Her With a Feeling’ which is a slower passionate song with great guitar riffs from Mat with solid rhythm section, with Mat’s wife Celeste watching on with rapt attention! Followed by a Cream number ‘The Politician’ which is a very topical song with great full band sound with great powerful vocals from Mat.
A new song on only its second performance was next with ‘Soul Crawl’ with its soulful tempo with strident vocals and solid rhythm section backing as well as great guitar riffs from Mat.
Then we had another new song with ‘Put It Down’ which was a slower keys & guitar led tune with Mat’s powerful evocative vocals, great drums from Sam and brilliant bass line from Luke.
After massive applause from the audience the band came back for an encore with a T Bone Walker song ‘T-Bone Strut’ as an instrumental uptempo bluesy number with great keys & guitar and solid rhythm section to finish the night on a high.